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| ISSUE - 21 - Summer 2005/2006 | |
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Let's hear it for sound therapy
It's a route my mother, Rhonda, is taking before she makes good with her threats about Dad, trialing it on herself first. It's a therapy that's reported not only to retrieve certain kinds of hearing loss, but also to boost energy levels. It's simply a matter of pressing ‘play' on a CD player or cassette and letting the music do its work.
Music as a healing tool isn't anything new. Parents use it to soothe an unsettled child to sleep and, whether it's country, jazz, or rock, many of us have our own form of feel-good music to lift our spirits or soothe ourselves into a relaxed state. While research at institutions like Harvard Medical School in the United States show that the human brain is hard-wired for music, the tapes used in sound therapy have been adjusted to require the ear to reach outside what has become a restricted range and regain the adaptability it needs to listen properly.
“Sound therapy is based upon the neurological effect of sound on the nervous system by healing the damage done to our hearing every day,” says Maureen Hawke, Director of Learning Connections Centre in Paddington, Brisbane,
Over time our ears tune out certain sounds to protect us from annoying or too intense noises, creating a kind of deafness that isn't something a hearing test will pick up. “Through prolonged exposure to noise”, explains Rafaele Joudry founder of Sound Therapy Australia, “the ear gradually closes down, eliminating its ability to hear high frequencies.”
In my mother's case, 40 years on the school playground had her ears tuning out certain sounds. For my father, years of heavy farming and mining machinery noise have generated a kind of deafness that drives us mad in my family. Sound therapy can, we hope, reverse these effects giving Mum and Dad the opportunity to enjoy normal conversation by retraining their ears to hear a broad range of tones again.
How it works
The human ear doesn't have the equivalent of an eyelid to block out unwanted stimulation, so has to use other methods to reduce the impact of the high levels of noise common to modern day life like the din from construction work, traffic and loud music. Put simply, sound is transmitted through a series of chambers in the ear. It initially travels via the ear canal, through to the ear drum, ending up in the brain. The middle ear is where the important stuff happens. Consisting of three bones and two muscles, it is the bones that pick up the vibrations from the ear drum and transmit them to the inner ear. The middle ear can override the vast amounts and kinds of sounds traveling to the inner ear and brain by controlling the amount of vibration in the bones.
It does this by increasing the tension of the two middle ear muscles, reducing the amount of vibration occurring in the middle ear bones. Because we are constantly surrounded by sounds we'd rather not pick up on, the ear is continually encouraged to dampen these sounds down. The continual tensing of these muscles means they become rigid over time, blocking our ability to hear the whole range of sounds available to us. This ‘loss' of hearing can also make us irritable and can lead to social withdrawal as we find it more and more difficult to differentiate sound and hear conversations.
Sound therapy reverses this process by re-educating the auditory processing system through a series of specific sounds. “The music of Mozart and baroque masters that contain particular rhythms, harmonies and a full range of frequencies are the basis for sound therapy,” explains Maureen Hawke.
“The ear is more likely to open up to soft harmonic sounds,” agrees Rafaele, “and in the process of doing so the muscles in the middle ear relax and their tension will be lower.” In Sound Therapy this effect is intensified by filtering specific kinds of music in such a way that the emphasis is on the higher frequencies. It's effectively a ‘micro-massage' for the ear.
Interestingly, the therapy can be going on at the same time as other activities. My mother plays her cassette through headphones while she watches TV, as you don't have to ‘actively' listen to gain the benefits. “I don't have any trouble watching my shows while listening to the tape,” she says, “and I can move about freely in the garden or wherever as I listen. You can also hold a conversation.”
A work in progress
While my mother is currently experiencing tiredness, which is an initial side effect of the therapy, increased energy levels should follow. The energy the ear receives through sound, explains Maureen, keeps us motivated and stimulated. When we begin to block out these sounds, she says, we rob ourselves of the precious energy we need to get through the day. “Listening to sound therapy gives you more energy than a cup of coffee and makes you happier and healthier. Voice and ear are inextricably linked, as both are foundations of neurological, emotional and social development.”
“I've been using the therapy for a month,” says Mum, “and apart from feeling tired I feel there has already been some improvement in my hearing. I do have two months to go to complete the recommended course and am confident there'll be further gains.”
The variety of benefits experienced by sound therapy listeners may seem extraordinary, says Rafaele, but this is only because we fail to recognise the profound importance of the ear to our overall functioning and wellbeing. “The ear is the gateway to the brain. It's linked via the cranial nerves to many other organs and it's the organ by which we orient ourselves in our environment and in relation to others.”
We can experience remarkable things, she says, when we can hear well and we can listen properly.
More
www.soundtherapyinternational.com
www.learningconnections.com.au
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